A couple of years ago, Jordan Gruver went to a county fair in Brandenburg, Kentucky, presumably to go on a couple of rides, eat some cotton candy and maybe watch a tractor-pull competition. What the 16-year-old Latino boy got instead was a brutal beating by a group of neo-Nazis that left him with a broken jaw and left forearm, two cracked ribs and a body full of bruises and cuts – simply because of his ethnicity.

In response, Gruver hurt his attackers back by suing the white supremacist group of which they are officers in the hopes of bankrupting it – a savvy tactic that has put similar groups out of business in the past. A jury on Friday awarded Gruver $2.5m in damages.

As the civil trial got under way last week, however, with Gruver's lawyers showing jurors a pair of steel-toe boots used to kick the Panamanian-American teen, it was a brutal reminder that despite Barack Obama's historic win, racial hatred is still alive and well in the US – with Latinos increasingly becoming victims.

According to recently released FBI statistics, hate crimes against Latinos rose for the fourth year in a row in 2007 with 595 incidents reported, compared to 426 in 2003. But that number is likely much higher because the FBI's statistics are compiled from state statistics using a reporting system riddled with problems. Since many victims, particularly undocumented ones, do not report crimes to the police, the actual number of incidents could be as much as 20 times higher, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, the prominent civil rights group that represented Gruver in his lawsuit.

Those numbers are horrifying, though not entirely surprising, given the virulent anti-immigrant sentiment of the past few years, which has seen government officials like Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo accuse immigrants of nothing less than destroying American culture. People like radio host Hal Turner and Minuteman Project leader Laine Lawless openly urge white people to shoot, rob and harass anyone with brown skin. Meanwhile, the Republican party, hoping to galvanise conservative support for itself, drafted harsh legislation aimed at rounding up immigrants in pointless ICE raids. They watched as whack jobs like Turner and Lawless helped fuel the kind of blind-alley rage and thuggery that has yielded all kinds of victims. Undocumented immigrants like Marcelo Lucero, a 37-year-old Ecuadorian living in Patchogue, New York, was beaten to death recently by a gang of white teens who went out looking for a Latino to attack.

By now, most states have fairly tough laws to punish hate-crime perpetrators, but more needs to be done. Police across the nation should forge close ties with local Latino community leaders who can urge even the most reluctant, terrified victim to come forward. Focusing on the future is just as important. States should work toward educating kids of all backgrounds to learn about and respect each other. A bright spot last week was the annual "mix it up at lunch" day, where four million school children across the country sat next to someone new at lunchtime in order to forge a connection and tell their stories in class and online. Sounds simplistic, but then one of the most effective ways of killing racism is simple: get to know someone personally and you challenge your preconceptions.

Certainly, one day a year alone will not change racial attitudes, which is why it is crucial that kids learn about the contributions of diverse Americans in their classroom. There's no shortage of Latinos, as well as African-, Native-, Asian- and Arab-Americans who have contributed to the rise of the US as a worldwide force. Unfortunately, outside of a few inner-city schools where their accomplishments are used as a self-esteem tool for minority kids, you would hardly know it.

Thankfully, that is beginning to change with Obama's historic victory in becoming the country's first African-American president. Although many have suggested that his election is proof that this country has overcome racism, it should instead be viewed as an opportunity to continue making strides to conquer it.